There’s no escaping it, in our culture
looks matters. Ask any actor, musician, politician, or man in the street. Our overall confidence and emotional
well-being is tied up with it, which I guess is pretty good
news if you are in the cosmetic business.

Talking of which, Dove, in their latest campaign
for “Real Beauty”, recently hired Gil Zamora, an FBI forensic artist to
prove that when it comes to looks, we are our own worst enemy.

He undertook a social experiment to illustrate the
ongoing struggle women have with recognising their own beauty.

Without seeing his subjects, the forensic artist
created composite sketches of women based on their own descriptions, plus a
second sketch based on the description of a stranger that they spent a short
amount of time with before the sketch.

The end result was extraordinary. In each case the
woman’s own description was different than the description by the onlooker. Their
faces were full of “flaws”, but when the stranger
described them, the sketches were more accurate and more flattering. In an
accompanying video a woman tears up as she realises her self-description
resulted in a "fatter, sadder" version of herself, while the stranger
saw her as "open, friendly and happy."

Dove research shows that women are
their own worst critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves
beautiful.

So yes, we do have an image problem. Now,
I am not sure quite what percentage of men would consider themselves as good
looking or handsome, but the ever-growing shelf of men’s products at my local
chemist might be a good indication that low self-esteem and confidence are an
issue for us too.

Of course, at one level, none of this should
surprise us. We are constantly bombarded with advertising, magazines, films and
TV programmes showing people’s skin to be clear, wrinkle and spot-free with symmetrical
faces, straight noses and super white teeth.

Is it any wonder that our self-esteem
plummets when we look at ourselves in the mirror? And as the weather warms up
(finally) we will become even more conscious of our numerous imperfections and
want to spend money to fix them.

Yet if we, perhaps, notice more of what
we have rather than what we don’t have, our self-perception might just change a
little.

Maybe we would stop comparing ourselves
with others and for once not be left wanting.

When I read the Bible I don’t see
beautiful, perfect, gorgeous people nominated by God to be an example to others.
Instead, I see Moses with a stammer, who chose to have his brother Aaron speak
on his behalf. I see Paul the Apostle suffering with a speech impediment, as
well as well as having bad eyesight. Jesus himself was described as ordinary in
appearance. His disciples were equally described as ordinary.

So here is another way to look at
ourselves.

Polish psychologist Andrew Bienkowski, a
man who was exiled to Siberia and starved himself to death so his grandson
could eat his meagre rations, said that we could approach ourselves by
thinking: I have breath! I have life! I have shelter! I am here…

Be inspired to see yourself differently.
Look at the four basics of life. If you can say that you have breath, family, somewhere
to live and some place to sleep you can say, “Thank God my life is full!”

God allows us to focus on his own perfection
and goodness and to see ourselves as he sees us. We become grateful and
satisfied and learn to avoid discontentment, which always leaves us wanting.

King David famously declares in Psalm
23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.” So the big, fat,
honest questions are: what is the “shepherd” of my life? And does it make me
not want?

Our confidence and self-esteem can come
from knowing that we are accepted by a loving and gracious God. And by those
who know us, perhaps, better than ourselves.

So, come on, put that
anti-wrinkle cream back and get real. You too guys!

If you read yesterday morning’s
London’s freebie City newspaper CityA.M., you’ll know what I mean.

There was a little story tucked
away on page 10 about Top Shop in the Philippines. It appears that Top Shop’s
owner Philip Green has found Jesus, but not as we might understand it.

Move over Kate Moss, the Christian
look has arrived! And his followers have
apparently never looked so good.

It appears Top Shop has just launched
a new range of cosmetics called “Looking good for Jesus” and it has inevitably aroused
the wrath of Catholics and other Christians in the country.

Among the offending ladies items
are a lip balm called Virtuous Vanilla and a hand and body cream called Get
Tight with Christ. I kid you not.

The lip balm has caused
particular offence by depicting two women lovingly gazing up to Jesus with
flowers in their hair, complete with robes.

It begs the question: why anyone
would want to use the Christian faith to promote vanity products?

Coming from a cheerless, austere, protestant background, I remember the girls at our youth club were not
allowed to wear any form of make-up, just in case it caused boys to have uncontrollable lusty thoughts. Dowdiness seemed to somehow equate to godliness.

Of course, Dove Cosmetics has now
made natural beauty their main marketing strategy with their natural beauty campaign. And brilliant it is too.

In a time when when we are obsessed with image like never before, maybe this is the ideal time to really consider what it is to be made in God's image (Genesis).

One of my favourite verses in the
Bible is found in the Book of Samuel when it says “man looks at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” ( 1 Sam 16:7).

As a man, I don’t feel confident
to talk about cosmetics. I’ll leave that
post for the missus. As for “looking good for Jesus”, I would have thought that
was done at creation. Boy, I'm naive!